It always seems easy when you are after

A good TV show on HEMA? Sure, here it is

I am going to warn you – I’ll brag here. And this is just because I very rarely have that option in regards to my country.

The HEMA community has been baffled and angry for the last couple of days and the BBC is at fault. In short, they made a TV show, one of the topics in one episode was I.33, HEMA, swords… and they screwed it up. Nah, thats putting it lightly. They ruined HEMA on the small screen.

The producers made a typical mistake – getting the wrong guy for the job. And considering there are plenty of right guys for the job in UK, in London, it is really quite unforgivable.

And please understand – besides being a HEMA guy, I am also a journalist. BBC has always been a prime example for me. But in this case, a Bulgarian show in an otherwise average local TV Channel has done something the great BBC failed to do – make a good hour of television on HEMA.

It happened 2 years ago at our yearly summer training camp. The Wild Fly – an extreme sport show – decided they wanted to do a show on people fighting with swords, and the small team (three people, camera man, producer and host) came for a visit.

Halfway through the day they decided that everything was to cool for one episode and they went on for two.

They were asking questions, not following a script. Yes, the show had a specific format, but they knew enough about things like ours to not force it on us needlessly. We were not sure of the results, but in a month it was clear – they’ve done a great job.

Of course, the show isn’t perfect, but it is miles ahead of the BBC one. Again, great thanks to Ogi and the Wild Fly!

Аnd finally, after all the bragging, here are the two episodes – nicely subtitled by us: